I can't really argue with that point. :) I think what we're discussing here is, at least for the moment, largely an interesting academic exercise, but little more than that.

Oooookay, I go away for a few weeks and somehow the thread about Ontario's flag yields... breasts and Jesus on the nipple. I am really interested in seeing how we got from A to Z on this one. :)

I'd sure love it if Putin could see it's not worth the trouble and pull back, but I don't think he will, for a lot of reasons. The first is, I don't think this guy plays by the rules the rest of us expect. He's essentially a czar, above the constraints of ordinary decent human beings. He's also...

Oh, pshah, you just have to yield as the train goes around the turn. :) Either that or race it... :D

All interesting ideas. I wasn't big on round-abouts when they started popping up west of Toronto in recent years, but I'm starting to come around.

I don't think whataboutery shoves anything; it just passes the buck. Quebec will do what Quebec will do. We're talking here about our province, the people in it, and our common symbols. But to engage in it for a moment, if you're saying you'd like to see a more inclusive flag for Quebec, how can...

I would tend to agree to some extent; I think I'm more comfortable with seeing the Union Jack on a provincial flag, where it tends to represent local heritage and traditions, as opposed to on the national flag where it speaks for an entire nationality... I do think our national flag definitely...

Ah, I need to edit this, as I seem I'm repeating myself. :) Nevertheless, I think it does bear restatement as it does, judging by the writer's name, represent the view of someone not of British heritage but yet having been brought up steeped in our ersatz provincial version of it. This was a...

Well, it's certainly a perspective that has some resonance; I remember writing letters to the editor in The Star back in the 80s when I was a teenager that took that position. It's legitimate to say, as you seem to be doing, that people who have come to Ontario from places that don't share a...

I went and had a look at one of the plates from the Toronto Aerial Photos site in the city archives... this one's from 1970. I really does look like there was something there at the time. Is this what you were thinking of, S.A.? Plate can be viewed here...

I just came across this clipping from my old files. As I recall, I didn't agree with the sentiments at the time, but as the years have past, I've grown increasingly to agree with some of what's being said here. In any case, this was a letter to The Star that they printed waaayyyy back on Sept...

I'm really surprised to learn this is as old as it is. I mean, obviously they've taken it off the shelf and shined it up a little. Not to be disparaging of it, but if you hadn't told me otherwise, I'd have assumed this was some flag China dreamed up for Tibet or something like that.

I understand what you're saying, but seriously, what's wrong with someone coming here from elsewhere looking at the flag of the province he's worked hard to make his home and seeing only people who settled here in the 1850s reflected on it? I'm largely of British Isles descent myself, but even I...

I made these videos about 8 years ago; saved them as Shockwave Flash files. They've been made obsolete to the point of being practically unplayable, so I've managed to salvage them and hopefully make them playable for a few years more. You might find them interesting if these are places you've...

Alma! Make wit' da photos! :D

It's true that some methods of digitization are better than others, but the bottom line is, you're still dealing with 480 lines of resolution. How many pixels you want to turn that into is kind of arbitrary, but beyond a certain point, you're squeezed all the juice out of it that's in it, and...

Well, if you recorded it in regular NTSC video, then I'm afraid that's all the quality you're ever going to get out of it; 640 by 480. There were only 480 used horizontal scan lines in NTSC, so that's the limit you're up against. That's all the detail you captured, and it's all you'll ever have...

Ah, I completely misread the lay of the land there. I thought we were looking west. I think we're actually looking back east.

That's really something. Even me, as far back as I remember the area, it was the signaled left turn from the northbound 427 at Morningside, which is long gone now. Even the grassy divider between northbound and southbound that showed the turn lane for years is gone now. It's really weird...

Weird. That top photo; I would have expected to see more of a dip down into the Etobicoke Creek valley to the bow arch bridge where Evans Ave. becomes Sherway Drive, probably somewhere around the place the trees cross the way. The course looks flat as a pan.